{"id":89951,"title":" Zeon Systems: AI-powered robotics for lab automation 🧪","tagline":"We turn natural language into real-time lab automation.","body":"Hey everyone 👋\n\nWe’re [Brontë](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronte-kolar/) and [Tahir](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahirdme/) – co-founders of [Zeon Systems](https://www.zeonsystems.ai/). We’re on a mission to make science move at the speed of thought.\n\n# **TL;DR**\n\n**We turn natural language into lab automation.** Scientists type their experiment in English. Our software programs robots to execute it.\\\n\u003chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-jid99QPFA\u003e\n\n# **Problem**\n\nThe biggest scientific breakthroughs -- _think Selman Waksman mining microbes for antibiotics or Akira Yoshino testing early lithium-ion batteries_ _at Sony_ -- started in labs through painful, manual work. **Decades later, discovery still relies on pipetting, weighing, and prepping by hand.**\n\nIt’s inefficient, exhausting, and slows down discovery. Automation solutions exist, but are often **$$$** or built for **specific use cases**. \n\nWe want to change that.\n\n# **Our Take**\n\nWhat if you could run an experiment by just typing it out? \n\nThat’s what we’re building for: **automation that’s usable by everyday scientists.**\n\n# **The Zeon System 🦾**\n\nWe sell a hardware + software system that runs lab experiments using off-the-shelf robotics. **Labs receive a ready-to-run automation setup** that includes:\n\n* Our AI-powered software\n* 2 off-the-shelf robotics arms with mounted depth cameras\n\n_How it works:_\n\n* Scientists describe protocols in plain English\n* Zeon interprets them, detects lab tools using computer vision, and plans the execution\n* The system generates and executes robotic code in real-time, adapting to the specific lab environment\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=89951\u0026key=user_uploads/379901/f18d8421-74dc-4213-8f17-a91419504529)\n\n# **What’s Possible**\n\nWe are already piloting with labs at UCSF and Stanford to:\n\n* Run fluorescence screens for nanoparticles overnight\n* Automate multichannel pipetting for clinical assays\n* Dispose of biohazardous waste while researchers sleep\n\n# **Big Picture**\n\nEventually, we want to **enable labs that run themselves**. Think self-driving labs on Mars or in the middle of the ocean doing science while humans dream. 🪐 🧪🧬\n\n# **The Team**\n\n[Brontë](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronte-kolar/) built electronic systems for electric aircraft and high-density battery packs before pivoting to computational biology research at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Erasmus Medical Center. \n\n[Tahir](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahirdme/) has been building software and ML for science labs basically all his adult life, doing computational research at IIT, Yale and working in biotech and pharma across India and the US.\n\n# \n\n# **Our Ask**\n\nWe are looking for **pilot partners** interested in deploying our system in their labs! \n\n* **Know a scientific lab or company that should work with us?** → Email us at [founders@zeonsystems.ai](mailto:founders@zeonsystems.ai) \n* **Resonate with our message?** → Share this post (or our [promo video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-jid99QPFA))\n\n—\n\n[_Let’s make science move faster._](https://www.zeonsystems.ai/)\n\n\\-Brontë + Tahir\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=89951\u0026key=user_uploads/379901/3896ab4e-84de-4bfd-ad2e-7fd6f0462be3)\n\n","slug":"NOp-zeon-systems-ai-powered-robotics-for-lab-automation","created_at":"2025-04-29T23:00:50.835Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T02:00:44.090Z","total_vote_count":65,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/NOp-zeon-systems-ai-powered-robotics-for-lab-automation","share_image_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/media/?type=post\u0026id=89951\u0026key=user_uploads/379901/f18d8421-74dc-4213-8f17-a91419504529","company":{"id":30434,"name":"Zeon Systems","slug":"zeon-systems","url":"https://www.zeonsystems.ai/","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/95786f7359527c0b6051a250e5f3cb00d43b578b.png","batch":"Spring 2025","industry":"Industrials","tags":["Artificial Intelligence","Robotic Process Automation","Robotics","Automation"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/30434"}}